Category: Australia Life (2005-2006)

Tonight, my flat mates and I headed over to their friend Mikey’s place for a night of Margaret Cho and dinner. We watched Big Brother’s Eviction — you wouldn’t believe how big the OZ version is here! After Kate was evicted, we snacked and then put in Margaret Cho. It was really fun. Everyone was really nice, and I’m happy to be making some nice friends here!

Today, I went into the city to Hyde Park to meet a cousin of mine. It’s about time, because when I was moving back from Japan, he was moving TO Japan. Then after Japan, he moved to Australia, which obviously, I just moved to. So, we were in touch via e-mail, and coordinated to meet up finally yesterday.

Keith is working with HP, and we sort of knew how we were connected through family, but had never met or anything. It was pretty amusing. We ended up chatting about his career and how great it is that he’s been able to work around the globe–his next stop? Beijing, and quite soon–just in October.

After a couple of hours of walking around the city, we parted and I headed back to home.

Today, I headed to lunch with Paula downtown, and then headed to Immigration to get my work permit in my passport. I have officially filled up my passport now. :) After Immigration, I went to school and headed for my Cross Cultural Management Course. I walked in, and it was a huge cohort of about 200 people. I saw an open seat as I walked passed a group of obvious foreigners, so I sat down. Boy am I glad I did. I sat down on a row with a german guy, a swedish girl, a gujarati! girl, and a chinese girl. How perfect is this environment for me? So, I introduced myself in each of their languages and impressed the heck out of everyone ;) The teacher was from South Africa, and very articulate–I’m really looking forward to the course.

I then went to get some books from the bookstore, and then headed to my next course, Business Communications. It’s a pretty small class, and the teacher is American. From New Jersey at that. I sat next to a Canadian girl, and the class seems pretty engaging. Overall, I’m quite happy of the courses, and all but that one class seems great! But, I think 3/4 is a great ratio!

Tonight after class, (which, was quite disappointing–hopefully tomorrow’s last two will like the first!) I headed over to the Fitzroy Pub for Trivia Night with Mike and Traci. I brought along my friend Peter and Sarah, and Sarah invited Lukas and Sally. The grand prize was $900 this time, and the deal is you had to compete through a series of 45 questions, and a couple of fun games in between for the prize. I won a bike ride for two around Sydney on some silly game of True/False. But then, we actually beat out everyone else on Trivia! So, we won a pitcher of beer (yay for me), 2 tickets to the opera house, 2 tickets to another show, and a bottle of wine. We did so well, and we won by 1 point! We’ll definitely be back to show the Ozzies what’s up! On our team? 3 Americans, 1 Aussie, 1 English, 1 Canadian, and 1 Russian. Recipe for success!

So today, I had lunch with my flatmates and bought some notebooks for my classes. I went to uni a little bit earlier so I could apply for my work permit, pick up my mail, and do a couple of other things around campus. I also picked up a form for a photography contest that I plan on entering. I then met up with David and Andreas, two guys from orientation and had some dinner at the cafeteria. I then headed to my class in the Carlslaw building, and it was a lecture room with stadium seating. I headed for closer to the top, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t 100% Chinese. The orientations were really almost 90% Chinese, so I thought classes might be as well, but there was an excellent mix. For instance, my group that is already set up consists of me, 1 Thai girl, 1 German guy, and 1 Australian guy. The teacher is French, and has lived/worked in Europe, the US, Singapore, and now in Australia. The lecture was pretty interesting, and I’m quite excited as everything we were talking about, I saw active participation from people and their comments showed that they have work experience. It’s amazing how different uni can be when there’s a few years more of maturity, work experience, and the desire to participate.

This afternoon, I headed for the new Ikea over in Rhodes. It was in a large shopping centre near the train station, so made it convenient for me to actually transport things I buy home. I got another pillow, a lamp for my shelf, a side unit for my desk that has room for files, some tupperware items, a desklamp, and another towel–so it was eventful. This evening, Chris, my flatmate and I headed to the gym for the ‘Pump!’ class–this was my first time to a gym for almost 2 months, so it felt good to get back into exercising. The hour workout consisted of all sorts of body conditioning, and really got me sweating! I will choose a gym this week, but I don’t think I’ll be going to Chris’, because it’s a little farther than I want to go. Tomorrow starts uni! My first class is an evening class, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the students in there–I hope to make some new cool contacts.

I feel SO STUPID. Firstly, I didn’t bring a powerstrip with me to combat the problems of the differences of voltage here in Australia, but despite having a transformer that I’ve been continuously swapping to plug in the electronics that actually NEED to be protected, I have now blown up two of my items. My electric shaver blew up, and now my perfectly great speaker system has been blown up. How was I so stupid to not remember what could be plugged in and what couldn’t be?! Arghh!

Tonight, I met up with Boughty and Wendy, who are friends of my friend from California, Alan. He put me in contact with them for when I arrived to Australia.

We met up in King’s Cross and headed over to Surry Hills for dinner with two others–Julie and Courtney. We had such a great dinner, with Tandoori chicken tikka masala, spinich dishes, and great Naan! Everyone was so nice. Boughty, Wendy and I then headed to Yellow, which is where my flatmate Chris works, and we popped in for a delicious Macaroon.

So, I went to the Faculty of Econ/Business Welcome Orientation yesterday and met up with Andreas, the Swede that I’ve been able to meet since I’ve been here. After the orientation, they had a meet and greet with some professors, and mentors. I also met another American. When she was asking about my background and why I came here, I had told her about my degree in Japanese and joked that it should have been in Mandarin. Her response?

“Oh yah, Mandarin is the one that’s got Moroccan influence, right?”

I was quite shocked and just as I responded that Mandarin has nothing to do with Morocco, she tried to find out another M place that would affect Mandarin– so I suggested Mongolia, which she beamed with a ‘You Got It!’

Anyhow, the dinner was nice, and I met one of my professors for Business Communications, so he seemed really cool. So I’m looking forward to it.

Here is an updated picture of what my view is on my ‘balcony/sundeck’. I absolutely love the place and my flatmates are great! I’m sleeping soundly–being right in the middle of the city practically and it’s still peaceful– I love it! I’m going to find a gym soon, but have already been to the public pool for some laps, and found it quite convenient. I’m also getting used to the train system, with only a few mistakes on pricing for tickets. Other than that, I’ve completely settled into my new life in Sydney, and I must say, things couldn’t be better. I love it here so far, and everyone I’ve met have been so nice and kind, and I think I will be finding many opportunities here.

PS> That’s the Harbour Bridge and the little chunk of white is the first swoop of the Sydney Opera House :)